Future technology - reading someone's brain?

Question

Will we ever be able to medically examine the human brain and read it like a book? Sure it sounds like science fiction now but with all the new advancements we make every year, it has to be possible. They already understand different electrical impulses and what type of messages they send. How far into the future do you think this would be?

Answer 1

They already CAN, to a very limited extent.

Certain parts of your brain show typical patterns of stimulation in certain circumstances, so they can sort of tell what's going on in there. There is no reason to believe that they will not be able to tell exactly what a person is thinking, but it will probably not be as easy as what they do now.

For one thing, everyone's neural network is a little different... even if things are more or less in the same place. It's like how every library is different even though they all use the Dewey decimal system. You can't just walk into a strange library, see someone pluck a book off a shelf and know what it is. In both situations you're going to have to become familiar with the specifics of a particular instance first. But once you have oriented yourself enough, then such things are entirely plausible.

As far as using a machine to discover things a person knows but ISN'T thinking about, that's going to be more difficult yet. That would require either reading very fine chemical (instead of electrical) potentials at a distance - something we can't really do at all now, or it would require FORCING certain pathways into activation. Interestingly enough, we can and have done the latter already. Machines have been developed to cause certain kinds of neural stimulations in subjects who just wear a helmet. We can't do anything especially sophisticated right now, but coupled with the above mind-reading technology, again there's no reason we couldn't.

Whether forcing someone's mind open with a machine is tantamount to rape or torture, I'll leave to future ethicists to decide.

Answer 2

Right now, scientists are able to monitor your brain and determine whether or not you recognize something (an object, photo, sound, etc). They have localized which part of the brain is responsible for recognition, and based on the level of neural activity in that area, someone trained in this technique can verify that you recognize something, even if you claim that you don't. It is not yet approved for court use, but that's the direction the technology is heading.

For example, once perfected, a brain monitor could be used in court to verify whether or not someone has seen an object before. This could be used for either the defense or prosecution, i.e., "Your honor, the scan proves my client has never even seen the murder weapon," or "Mr. Jones, you claim to have never met the defendant, but the results of the scan verify that you do in fact recognize her."

Answer 3

Accept the difference between the brain and the mind. The latter aspect will not be accomplished.